‘Bullying in schools getting out of hand’

Board of Education student representative Mary Hocog said that despite the Public School System’s tight anti-bullying policy, incidents of bullying are still rampant in school campuses.

“At bigger schools, bullying is getting out of hand and some students are afraid to go to schools,” said Hocog during Thursday’s board meeting where she told fellow board members the many concerns raised by both students and parents in public schools.

Hocog, who spoke in numerous events as motivational speaker, disclosed that these bullying incidents are mostly occurring in bigger schools.

She said some students who are victims of bullying are not even comfortable in reporting the incidents to school administrators because they believe these will not be addressed.

Upon hearing the students’ representative report, board chair Marylou S. Ada expressed alarm on the situation.

“Really?” she asked, and immediately got the attention of school administrators who were present in the board meeting. “Principals listen up!” she told them, encouraging them to listen to the concerns raised by students’ representative on the issue of bullying.

Studies show that bullying has great impact on both the students who bully and the students who are bullied. Some of the impacts are depression, low self-esteem, health problems, poor grades, and suicidal thoughts.

Early this year, the board tightened its policy on bullying and adopted formal regulation establishing expulsion and dismissal as among the serious consequences if bullying acts against students and employees of PSS are proven.

Under the policy, the board encourages any student who believes that he or she is a victim of bullying to report the matter immediately to their principals, teachersm and counselors.

The board also wants school administrators to regularly conduct follow-ups with the complaining students to ensure that the bullying has stopped and that no retaliation has occurred.

Any student who engages in bullying while on school property or while participating in school activities will be subject to disciplinary action, including expulsion from school while for employee who permits or engages in the bullying of students, they will be subjected to disciplinary actions including dismissal from service.

Besides the issue of bullying on campus, Hocog also reported that many students are also concerned on the usually high number of students in classes as a result of higher students-to-teacher ratio this school year.

“Students said that school infrastructure affects the way they learn and when one class is overcrowded, it distracts them. They said that they can work better if they can interact with their teachers,” reported Hocog.

From numerous presentations and activities, Hocog also bared that students are also concerned about some “incompetent teachers.”

“Some are saying about their teachers being incompetent and they’re wondering if they are really highly qualified or not. They also feel that younger teachers are more effective [in their teaching style],” she said.

Because many students find difficulty in taking chemistry, Hocog said many feel that PSS should offer physical science subjects first before introducing chemistry.

“They want to take up physical science class before taking chemistry so they can be taught the basics … because they find it difficult [to absorb everything] in chemistry class,” she said.

Meantime, Hocog reported that many parents, especially in high schools expressed concern on the way some students dress up for school. They urged PSS to consider implementing a dress code for students.